The third type of incentive that induces individual participation in orga- nization derives from the size and growth of the organization. These might be referred to as “conservation” values. Most prominent in the group for whom these values are important is the entrepreneur. It is true that the entrepreneur, to the extent that he is an “economic man,” is interested in profits, and not in size and growth. In practice this objection is not serious: first because profits usually are, or are thought to be, closely related to size and growth; and secondly because most entrepreneurs are interested in nonmaterial values, such as prestige and power, as well as profit. This attachment to conservation objectives is even more characteristic of the professional managerial group who exercise the active control of most large business enterprises.
Conservation objectives may provide important values, also, for the other employees of the organization as well, particularly those who are mobile. An organization that is growing and prospering offers greater opportunities for prestige and advancement than one that is static or declining. Conservation values are not, therefore, completely independent in practice from values of the second type, though for purposes of analysis there is some advantage in considering them separately.
Interest in conservation of the organization provides the basis for an organizational loyalty distinct from that previously mentioned. The individual who is loyal to the objectives of the organization will resist modification of those objectives, and may even refuse to continue his participation if they are changed too radically. The individual who is loyal to the organization will support opportunistic changes in its objectives that are calculated to promote its survival and growth.
Loyalty to the organization itself is perhaps the type of loyalty most characteristic of commercial organizations, but both species prevail widely in both public and private administration, commercial and noncommercial. Some of the most striking manifestations of conflict between these two types of loyalty are to be found in religious and reform organizations, where there is often controversy as to the extent to which organization objectives shall be modified to insure survival. This was certainly one basis for the Stalinist- Trotskyist rivalry. As previously indicated, the motives of the opportunists in such a controversy may, of course, be tactical rather than egoistic. The opportunist, assessing unfavorably the chances of survival without adaptation, may prefer half a loaf rn no hread. while the “idealist” mav assess the chances of survival more than outweighs the improvement in survival chances. Both types of loyalty will be discussed more fully in a later chapter.
Source: Simon Herbert A. (1997), Administrative Behavior, Free Press; Subsequent edition.